Archive for the ‘Shared Web Hosting’ Category

Plesk is the biggest player in the Windows web hosting control panel industry and as a Windows hosting customer of Storm Internet, you will be provided with access to Plesk so that you are able to manage your own web hosting account and configure it how you want it to be. Control panels are an integral part of web hosting because without them web hosting providers would be responsible for every aspect of account management, whereas with a control panel system in place most Windows hosting customers are able to manage their account without having to contact their web hosting provider.

Logging In

Logging into Plesk for the first time is fairly simple. Once your Storm Internet Windows web hosting service has been setup for you, you will receive a welcome email that will contain the link to the Plesk control panel as well as the login details for your web hosting account.

Upon login you will automatically be taken to the Home screen from which you can select the action that you wish to perform:

We will now go through several basic operations that you are likely to wish to perform at some point with your web hosting account and you will see how using Plesk will allow you to streamline the management of your web hosting account.

Creating an Email Account

If you wish to use email with the domain name that you are hosting on your Plesk web hosting account then you will need to setup either email accounts or forwarders depending on how you wish to use this service. For this example we’ll setup an email account.

The first step is to select the ‘Mail Accounts’ icon from the Home screen.

You will then be taken to a page that will provide you with a summary of any existing email accounts that you have already created under your web hosting account and will allow you to perform operations of these email accounts if you wish to do so. In order to proceed with the process of creating an email account you will need to select the ‘Create Mail Account’ icon:

You will then be presented with the following form that you will need to fill out in order to create an email account:

The following details will need to be entered:

Mail account – this will be the name of the email address you want to create, your domain name will succeed this name meaning that “example” will become [email protected] if you are using the domain name example.com

Password – any email account should have a password applied to it to protect the contents of the emails that are received

Mailbox – checking this box will ensure that the mail account is treated as a mailbox rather than a forwarder or anything else

Mailbox quota – if you don’t have a default quota set then you will need to enter a custom amount in megabytes, it is important to set a quota for every mailbox so that a single mailbox doesn’t end up using up all of your web space.

Once you have filled the form out you can then click the ‘Next’ button for extended configuration options or ‘Finish’ to create the email accounts.

Adding a New DNS Record

If you are an advanced user then you may wish to add additional DNS records to your domain’s DNS file to facilitate the use of other web hosting plans or servers under separate sub-domains on your main domain name. In order to maintain your DNS zone you will first need to select the ‘DNS Settings’ icon from the Home screen:

From there you will then be presented with the different DNS entries that form your domain’s DNS zone; these are effectively the backbone of your domain name and will dictate how other servers around the internet direct users to your website and deal with emails that are sent from your domain name. In order to proceed with adding a DNS record simply click the ‘Add Record’ button:

You will then need to fill out the following form in order to create your new record:

The following details will need to be entered:

Record type – there are different types if DNS record with simple A records being there just to act a pointer that will map a name to an IP address, whereas MX records will dictate where email for your domain name is sent and which servers handle all incoming mail

Name – this will be the name that you wish to precede your domain name and will form the subdomain that will become your new DNS record

IP address – if you are creating an A record then you will need to map a name to an address, but if you are creating an MX record then you will need to enter a hostname rather than an IP address.

Once you click the ‘Ok’ button your new DNS record will then be created.

Creating an FTP Account

FTP accounts allow you to transfer files between your desktop computer and web space using the File Transfer Protocol, a standard that many file transfer applications are based around. Plesk, like many control panels, provides support for FTP accounts as standard.

In order to begin the process of creating an FTP account through Plesk, you will need to select the ‘FTP Accounts’ icon from the Home screen:

You will then be taken to the following summary screen:

In order to create a new account you will need to select the ‘Add New FTP Account’ icon located at the top of the page.

You will then be required to fill out the following form:

You will need to enter the following details in order to create your FTP account:

FTP account name – you will need to enter a username because this will provide you with a unqiue login identify

Password – a password will be required to keep your access to your web space secure

Home directory – set this option if you want to limit the access that you can have with a particular FTP account to a certain directory rather than having access to your entire web space

Permissions – you may wish to create an account that will only be able to browse your web space via FTP, but you do have the choice to add read and write permissions separately as per your needs.

In conclusion, using the Plesk control panel for the first time shouldn’t be daunting because as an application it will enable you to streamline the management of your Windows web hosting account and to make the most of what Windows web hosting has to offer.

Although shared web hosting services are probably the cheapest web hosting services available from any web hosting company, they cater for a niche in the market in the way of beginners and provide those who have never used web hosting before with the features and resources that they require for the hosting of a small website. Most web hosting companies are more than willing to provide their shared web hosting customers with full support at any stage, whether it be helping them move over from an existing web hosting company or to upload their newly developed website to their web space. Once you have setup your shared web hosting account, you often find that you aren’t making the most of the resources and features that you have available to you and for some this can be seen as meaning that they aren’t receiving good value for money; however, if you are able to find the web hosting service with the right combination of features and resources for your needs then making the most of the web hosting service that you have purchased isn’t that hard because in a way you could see it as almost being tailored to meet your needs.

UK web hosting services will allow UK businesses and individuals to make generous savings on how much they pay for their web hosting packages when compared to what they could be paying for web hosting services hosted in other countries. As a UK based business you are going to be aiming for the top spot in your local search engine listings so that you are able get the largest amount of traffic through to your website; you will need to target keywords specifically and the keywords that you work on will need to be relevant to the content and purpose of your website. There are many UK web hosting providers available that can offer you the same variety of web hosting plans provided by web hosting companies on other continents; this means that you can expect the same range of shared web hosting packages, reseller web hosting packages and dedicated web hosting services to meet your needs. As well as providing you with benefits that will aid you with your SEO campaign, you can also expect faster loading times from UK web hosting services because your website will be hosted closer to you physically and your target audience of UK users.

Plesk is a popular control panel available for Windows and Linux that allows you to manage your web hosting account with minimal effort, allowing you to focus attention on other factors that they may be more important to the development of your website. Plesk is a premium control panel meaning that it is able to offer you the features that may not necessarily be available with open source control panels and other equivalents; the investment here means that web hosting companies using Plesk are able to provide feature-rich web hosting services that can rival those offered by competitors. Although Plesk is available for Linux, it is more popular with those using Windows web hosting as it can provide you with a more defined level of integration with the Windows operating system than any alternatives. As well as being offered by default by most Windows web hosting companies for their shared hosting companies, Plesk is usually an additional option for those who are using Windows VPS server hosting and Windows dedicated server hosting, but in this case you will need to pay extra for the control panel. A comparison of Plesk hosting against other control panel-based web hosting services identifies that Plesk is able to provide a more stable hosting solution than its competitors.

Linux web hosting is the cheaper alternative to Windows web hosting and is the most basic entry-level form of web hosting you can consider if you wish to receive the best value for money from your chosen web hosting package. Linux shared hosting will offer you the cheapest web hosting packages available because it is an open source operating system meaning that web hosting companies don’t have to factor any operating system license fees into the prices of their Linux hosting services; it is also important to remember that the lower costs don’t mean that web hosting companies will skimp on either the resources available to you or the level of service that you are provided with. If you are after a low cost way into web hosting then Linux is the correct route for you as Windows hosting services are generally targeted at small and medium sized businesses that have a distinct need for the use of some of the Microsoft products that there are available. As well as Linux shared hosting, you can also choose from Linux dedicated web hosting if you are after a more distinct form of reliability and a level of security that will provide you with a sound hosting environment in which you won’t have to worry about hackers gaining access.

Linux Shared Hosting

For cost effective web hosting anyone will tell you to use Linux shared web hosting if you are a beginner and have never considered using web hosting before. As well as being easy to manage, you can expect to receive resource allocations that will constitute good value for money and will provide you with the web space you require to host your website and then expand it over time without having to upgrade your entire web hosting service. Most web hosting companies choose to use the cPanel control panel to allow them to offer their Linux shared hosting packages as this is a tried and tested solution that offers end-users the most stable platform going without compromising the low-cost of Linux shared hosting; as well as offering access to all of the resources that you need, cPanel will provide you with a comprehensive guide on how you can get the most out of your web hosting package using the control panel. The variety of web hosting companies offering Linux shared hosting guarantees that you’ll find the hosting package that it will suit your needs exactly, although if you require additional assistance or resources then you can always choose a hosting service with which you can custom-configure your hosting resources.

Linux Reseller Hosting

A Linux reseller hosting package will be hosted on the same server as Linux shared hosting accounts meaning that by using Linux reseller hosting, you won’t be provided with any greater uptime guarantees than you would receive if you were to use Linux shared hosting. A reseller web hosting package will allow you to offer your own web hosting plans to your own web hosting clients through the means of multiple domain hosting; this can be highly cost effective for those who wish to start their own web hosting company, although you are going to be limited as to how much you can customize your own web hosting plans.

Linux VPS Hosting

A Linux VPS server can offer you a Linux dedicated hosting environment at a fraction of the cost of a Linux dedicated server, providing you with the most cost-effective solution for Linux dedicated hosting. Although you aren’t provided with your own dedicated CPU when using a Linux VPS server, you can expect to have your own guaranteed assignments of disk space and RAM that will also influence the performance of your hosting environment. As is the case with shared hosting, you can choose to upgrade the amount of RAM and disk space that you have available to use as you wish – the same can be said for bandwidth, although this will affect who can visit your website and not necessarily the performance of your server. Virtuozzo is usually the virtualization daemon of choice by most mainstream web hosting companies, helping to ensure a steady stream of reliable VPS hosting packages; this will enable you to manage the state of your Linux VPS server using the Virtuozzo Power Panel rather than having to slave away at SSH every time you wish to complete a task with your server.

Linux Dedicated Server Hosting

For power users and businesses with extended budgets for their web hosting services, dedicated servers can offer you reliability that is incomparable to other web hosting services. The dedicated nature of Linux dedicated server hosting is achieved by providing you with your own physical server, allowing you to make full use of the resources that are included with your server because you are going to be the only one using them. The physical nature of dedicated server hosting means that you will be able to upgrade the hardware of your server as you see appropriate; during the order process you can opt for an upgraded CPU based on what your web hosting company can offer – you can also choose from various RAM and hard drive configurations depending on what you expect to achieve from using Linux dedicated servers. The high cost of dedicated server hosting is justifiable under most circumstances because the users of dedicated servers generally require a higher level of security and support than your normal user would need, and web hosting providers need to account for these added costs somehow.

In conclusion, using Linux web hosting isn’t a mission as it may appear to be at first. Although server management can be slightly complicated when using a Linux VPS server or Linux dedicated server due to the fact that you have to use SSH if you wish to manage your server properly; this can be made slightly easier with the use of a control panel such as Webmin or cPanel. Linux shared hosting services are designed to be as intuitive and easy to use as possible because they are aimed at beginners rather than more experienced users.